Best First Hours

Iron Man 2

Sequels. Comic franchises converted to video games. Movie tie-ins.
Studios closing their doors. Needless to say, there are a lot of
barriers that can narrow the odds of producing a high quality title. It
would seem that Iron Man 2 was forced to hurdle all of them. As I
mentioned in my recent First Hour review of Iron Man 2, its predecessor
was critically panned. But did it deserve it? Or did it fall prey to
the echo chamber of hate that often befalls licensed products and spin
offs? The truth is, Iron Man had it’s problems. From unwieldy controls
to frame rate issues, it seemed like it stumbled each time it would
just get up to speed. But it had moments of fun, high intensity super
hero action that carried one through to each subsequent mission. Going
into a sequel, one assumes that Sega Studios San Francisco, the
developer behind both titles would make an effort to improve the
failings of the original while trying to maintain those things they got
right the first time. The question is, did they pull it off?

After sitting in on the developer conference call for Iron Man 2, I was
hopeful that things were looking good. They talked about a dedication
to listening to fans, and to implementing those lessons they learned
from user feedback on the first game. They talked about simplified
controls, vast levels, destructible environments and deep
customization. They touted a boss that is “bigger than any boss in any
game ever”. And War Machine. War Machine sounded like a perfect
addition to the Iron Man gaming universe. Yes, it sounded like it had
really come together. And so I eagerly anticipated my review copy,
thinking back to the flawed but fun experience I had with the first
game.

In the sequel, we catch up with Tony Stark discussing what
it means to be Iron Man. In Tony’s sardonic way, we basically get the
idea that even though he may seem incredible; he’s just making it up as
he goes. With someone as brilliant as Tony Stark, that’s probably not a
bad thing. Then things get interrupted as there is an attack on the
Stark archives, the secret informational repository for the company. We
learn that some very important data has been stolen and Tony has to get
it back. In the process of doing so, Tony is aided by James Rhodes, AKA
War Machine, as well as members of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Black Widow.

In
classic comic book fashion, the information that is stolen is used
against our hero and the game culminates in much the same way the first
movie did, where Tony must destroy a twisted version of technology he
created. You’re probably thinking this is becoming a theme for the
modern Iron Man and you’d be right. Both movies and both games
essentially boil down to the same formula. Tony creates something
awesome. That something falls into the wrong hands. The bad guys twist
it into something evil and then Tony has to destroy what is essentially
just a perversion of his own creation. It’s actually a pretty workable
formula and speaks to the age old mythology of Pandora’s box, the good
and evil that always tend to go hand in hand.

I will mention
that I’ve not yet seen the movie; however the developers commented that
the game doesn’t replicate the story of the movie.

So, to the
gameplay. Iron Man 2 is a third person action game. Most of the time is
spent in the air, flying and shooting at both air and ground based
targets. Appropriately, the majority of levels are designed to be
played as a flight sim, such that running on the ground is possible but
not functional. The remaining levels are a combination of indoor third
person action and exterior flight. In both cases, there are lots of
things to do, and by things “to do”, I mean things to blow up. You get
the option to play as Iron Man or War Machine. You get to choose which
hero you want to control at the beginning of each level. However,
depending on the story arc, some levels require you to be one or the
other.

At the beginning of each level, you start in Tony’s lab.
You have several options to choose from but all are essentially leading
to the same thing: upgrading your components and outfitting your suits
(several classic and modern suits can be unlocked by performing well on
certain missions). These take the form of Research, Fabrication, and
Suit Customization. Throughout the course of each level, you’ll earn
research points. These points are used to upgrade the quality or
featureset of your gear. For example, War Machine has a shoulder
mounted mini-gun. Over the course of the game, you can upgrade the
damage it does, the firing rate, the recycle time, and the type of
projectile it fires. This is true of most all the weapons in the game
and this is actually one of the high points in the design. As you
progress, you will definitely notice that you get more powerful if you
spend your points wisely.

The traditional part of the game is
divided into 8 levels. They are pretty standard stuff. You’ll take part
in an escort mission, a rescue, a seek and destroy and a few more. And
the final level, in a moment of brilliance, necessitates playing as
both Iron Man and War Machine. As the level progresses, you’ll switch
who you control as the two heroes tag team the final boss. It’s well
done and a very enjoyable way to almost co-op a level solo, if that
makes any sense.

What was awesome: I definitely think playing as
War Machine was a highlight. Not to disparage Iron Man, but, in my
opinion, they made a big mistake in the design department with the Iron
Man character. In the first game, Iron Man’s pulse weapon in his palms
were fully automatic. Hold the right trigger down and you’re good to
go. For some bizarre reason, they changed that in this game, such that
you have to constantly mash the trigger if you want to fire rapidly
(however this enables them to include a useless charged shot that does
more damage if you hold the trigger down momentarily). This is tedious
and makes Iron Man a bit of a chore. On the other hand, War Machines
right trigger weapon is a very effective mini-gun. And guess what, it’s
fully automatic. The rest of the weapons they use are the same. So now,
you have an Iron Man game where Iron Man takes the back seat in
playability. Also, the final boss is pretty awesome but I’ll not give
any spoilers. I will talk about some problems with it later though.

What
I liked: I like some aspects of the new control scheme, but hated
others. Not having to hold a button to fly or hover is an improvement.
Also, the in between levels is more gratifying as you decide how to
spend your money on upgrades. In the first game, this element was
pretty basic and in the sequel they’ve fleshed it out a bit more,
giving you greater customization options. Lastly, they get a big thumbs
up for skipable cutscenes.

What I didn't like: A couple of the
levels are very generic. I mentioned in my first hour review, that you
have to escort some helicopters through a canyon. I swear I’ve played
this level in 30 other games. And in every game, I’m forced not to get
too far ahead. It makes no sense. Please, developers, throw this level
out of your notebooks. Never again.

I mentioned some control
improvements, but I would actually say they’ve hurt the controls more
than they’ve helped. Having to mash the trigger for rapid fire simply
makes no sense to me. And there are so many buttons to manage in
flight, it’s almost impossible to do it fluidly. Forcing you to switch
weapons with the same thumb you use to steer is a horrible idea. If you
try to switch weapons while steering, you run into things. Even on the
final boss I was literally battling the controls. I’m a pretty patient
guy and I recognize that some complex actions require complex controls,
but this game was consistently baffling. In one level, you’re tasked
with trapping an enemy in a room and then flipping a switch to destroy
it. You have to quickly move from place to place, lure it to a certain
position, disable it, then get to the next room and throw the switch.
It’s a wonderful little section and a great idea for a battle. Just
thinking about playing the level with solid controls gets me excited.
Unfortunately, it’s almost completely ruined by clumsy controls and a
spastic camera. I even replayed the level after beating the game and
was still bumping into walls and struggling to juggle the controls.
This reaches a fever pitch in the final boss battle as you’re forced to
attack and retreat in quick succession, while simultaneously dodging
several forms of attack. The final boss battle could have actually been
an amazing experience if I weren’t so frustrated with the controls, the
ENTIRE time. Keep in mind, this is the final boss, I’ve had hours of
gameplay to get the hang of it.

The controls are simply not
intuitive when used in combination. As challenging as the first game's
controls were, at least they made sense as you get further in the game.
It’s like the developers were so intent on “fixing” the original
control elements that they didn’t take into account that each fix they
implemented didn’t work well with the others. The graphics actually
look worse that the first game. Why? But I’ll discuss that more in the
graphics section below

This game is incredibly short. I would
say MAYBE 4 hours of gameplay. Because I’m a nerd about the pre-mission
upgrades, I probably burned an hour or two looking at what I could do
and thinking about how to proceed, adding a couple of hours, up to 6
but the game is over before you know it. I read a lot of reviews and
people complain a lot about some games being too short, but I’ve
honestly never had a problem with it before. I always assumed that I’m
just a slow, methodical gamer who takes his time. Even so, I felt like
this game was over before it started.

Scores

Gameplay: 4This
is by far the biggest disappointment for me. The first Iron Man game
was nothing if not promising. I had a lot of fun and quietly hoped for
an improved sequel. No such luck. I found the level design to be
generic and uninspired. Yes, there were several banner moments, and the
boss battles had huge potential, but they were totally hindered by the
crummy control scheme making it almost impossible to feel like the
badass that is Iron Man. I continuously felt like the Iron Man from the
first few scenes in the first movie, where Tony smashed into the
ceiling and the floor and the robotic fire extinguisher keeps going off.

Fun Factor: 4This
is where the first game stood out. The levels were big. Alternate
“hero” objectives and timed objectives made for increased replay value
and rewarded skills at the controls. In the sequel, constant
frustration at the controls overshadows even the more glowing set
pieces and boss battles.

Graphics and Sound: 6Both
were very average. As I mentioned, the graphics were not as impressive
as the first game. A couple of things stand out. First, the levels are
much smaller in scope. In the first game, there were points where you
could fly uninterrupted, at boosted speed for 20 seconds just to move
to another section of the level. In this game, they’ve completely
removed the ability to boost (at least as far as I could tell) and the
levels rarely take more than about 5 seconds of flight to traverse,
except for two long narrow levels that you basically just hover through
them. The voice acting by Samuel Jackson and Don Cheadle is good,
however, the cutscenes are poorly done and hinder the top notch voice
talent. The sound effects are not bad. The explosions sound good and
the flight sounds are what you’d expect.

Story: 7The
story feels like it could have been pulled directly from a three part
Iron Man comic. To me, that’s a good thing. But it also felt abridged,
and like the usage of S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t properly exploited, I
definitely like the idea of someone bold enough to go after Iron Man
right where it hurts the most.

Overall: 5I often talk
about expectations. Perhaps that’s key here. I went into the original
game with zero expectations and came out pleasantly surprised. In this
case, while I wouldn’t say I had high expectations, I was certainly
hopeful of the outcome. When that didn’t come to pass, I think my
disappointment felt deeper that it would have otherwise.

Final Thoughts:
Go back to the first paragraph of this review. Then realize this game
has to hurdle every one of those barriers and then some. Then ask
yourself what the likelihood is that I’m being overcritical of this
game. If anyone knows me, they know that I’m the guy who can find the
diamond in the rough. I can find the positive is most any game. And
there’s no question, that Iron Man 2 has some shiny bits here and
there. Unfortunately, you’ll have to slog through 4 hours of
frustrations to find them. It pains me to say this, but I can only
recommend this game for the most die hard Iron Man fans. It’s way too
short for a full priced release. Uninspired level design and
frustrating controls make it a burden to even finish the four hour
campaign. As a fan of the developer, it saddens me to see them go out
on this game.

Comments

Iron Man deserves an amazing game. There's so much potential there, just like Spider-Man and Batman had before Spider-Man 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum. I think now that the character has been made a mainstream hit, SOMEBODY will step up to the plate and make a fantastic Iron Man game, maybe one that isn't constricted by a movie tie-in.

Ok, Ok. I actually thought about putting the "quotes" around journalist when I wrote that part but decided against it. I thought about calling her a game "writer" but she doesn't really write. I mean, she DOES "cover" games and gaming right? You can't call her a "gaming COVERER". Maybe I should have said, gaming personality? Hell, I still don't know what to call her. Although, I met her and E3 last year and FWIW she's super cool.

So I saw the movie last night. I liked it. Not enough actual screen time for Iron Man for my tastes, but still pretty good. Good performances all around. Some good laugh out loud moments. Felt like more comedy than the last one. But, as it relates to my review of the game, I was interested to see that they pulled several sequences directly from the movie. I wouldn't have noticed that had I seen the movie first. For extra credit see if you can spot the cameo by game journalist Olivia Munn.